Kyiv, 22 December 2023. Ukrainian PR Army, in collaboration with Ukraine. 5 AM Coalition, the volunteer movement Cactus and Tryzub, the Crimean Platform аnd East SOS Charitable fund have launched the #NoOneToBringPresentsTo initiative on social media as part of the Where Are Our People? campaign. The action aims to draw the attention of the global community to Ukrainian minors deported by Russians, who are now without family in a hostile country and will not have a Christmas.
Since 24 February 2022, Russians forcibly deported from 2.8 to 4.7 million Ukrainians from the temporarily occupied territories. Among them, Ukraine has identified 19,546 children, but their fate remains largely unknown. Russian occupiers broke into their homes and abducted them. The children may end up in orphanages thousands of kilometers away from home, adopted by another family, or used for propaganda. There’s no Christmas for them.
“For the second year, Ukrainian children abducted by Russians won’t receive gifts from St. Nicholas. But you can give them a Christmas miracle – don’t forget about them. Share these posts because the global community needs to learn about Russia’s atrocities in order to bring the abducted children back to Ukraine finally,” said Anastasia Marushevska, co-founder of PR Army and Where Are Our People? campaign.
The organizers urge everyone to join the initiative, specifically by sharing two posts with photos on their social media pages. The first post with the hashtag #NoOneToBringPresentsTo serves as a reminder that deported Ukrainian children will begin to disappear without a trace if the global community forgets them.
The second publication is a Christmas photo card featuring empty silhouettes of children, accompanied by the caption “Russia abducted 19,546 Ukrainian children” and the hashtag #AbductedChildren. This symbolizes the underage Ukrainians who, due to their unlawful detention in Russia, cannot reunite with their families for Christmas.
Note
PR Army is an independent non-profit organization of Ukrainian communication experts. The team collaborates with international media, connecting Ukrainian war witnesses, officials, and experts from various fields with international journalists. PR Army’s mission is to help Ukraine win the information war against Russia and build the image of Ukraine as a democratic and independent European country. It was launched shortly after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2022. The core of PR Army is a team of volunteer communicators.
Where Are Our People? (WAOP) is a global PR Army campaign aimed at exposing Russia’s planned policy of forced deportation of Ukrainians, bringing the issue to discourse, and calling for constant pressure on Russia and global human rights organizations to facilitate the return of those deported.
